Wrong Time, Right Place

1

"Alexandra Rose Matthews, will you do me the honor of marrying me?" The dark headed teenager took a knee beside the booth with his hand cupping a small box which he managed to flick open in seconds from the number of times he'd practiced it. I gasped at him and threw my hand up to cover my mouth in shock. He smirked at me as his mischievous ocean blue eyes smiled up at me. Everyone in the restaurant had gone silent. Each of them on the edge of their seat, waiting to see what I was going to say.

"Alexander! Of course, I will!" I squealed and hopped out of my seat and into his arms as he stood. Everyone clapped and cheered as he slid the ring on my finger. I wiped away fake tears.

"You think they bought it?" Alex whispered into my ear as he leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. His head moved back and I nodded with a soft rehearsed grin on my face. That's when a waiter scurried up to us.

"On behalf of the kitchen staff, we would like to congratulate you." The waiter clapped his hands releasing a black cart in our direction. On top of the cart was a platter with a silver lid over it. Another waiter stood behind it, stopping it beside our table and lifting the lid to reveal a chocolate cake. It was smaller than what we'd usually get but looked just as delicious.

My hand flew up to my heart, "Aw! You shouldn't have."

"We all hope you enjoy this complimentary cake," The man grinned before leaving us to enjoy our free cake.

"Toojays was so much better." Alex's voice was muffled as he shoved another large piece of cake into his mouth. It amazed me that not a crumb was on his face or rented suit. I nodded in agreement as I took a small bite myself.

"This is still good though, just a little dry," I say after eating the last piece on my plate. Russo's was one of the last restaurants on our list of places to try to get free cake at. We'd been doing this since we were little. It has become a bit of a hobby now. Every weekend we'd find a restaurant and perform. Then if we really liked their cake, we would use the birthday card after a couple of days.

After scarfing down the rest of the cake and paying for our meal, Alex held his arm out for me. I turned away to hide from the heat blooming on my cheeks and took it. He led the way out of the restaurant and into the parking lot.

The outside air was muggy from the earlier torrential rainfall and I could feel my dress pasting itself to my back. A cool breeze blew against the back of my neck and I was thankful for pulling my dark curls up into an updo. The parking lot was relatively quiet which wasn't at all a surprise since it was a small town and a late night so the only sound was of my heels against the pavement. I crinkle my nose at the strong scent of wet dog as Alex opened my door for me.

"Where to next?" He asked as he pulled his door closed and started the car. His hands rubbed together for warmth as we waited for the heater to kick on. The clock on his dashboard read 8:45.

"Toojays?" I suggested, "I mean it's my birthday today."

Alex smiled and leaned back to grab something out of the backseat. As he slid back into his seat, something shiny in his hands caught my eye. It was a small present wrapped in a shimmery silver paper tied with a purple bow on the top. He placed it into my hands and smiled hopefully. I gave him a real, genuine smile as I tugged on one end of the ribbon unleashing the bow. My fingers slid under the delicate paper and pulled the tape off. The paper fell off revealing something I thought was long gone.

"Oh, Alexander is this-"

"It is. I found it in one of those boxes in the attic."

I flipped open the small box and wrapped my fingers around the cool metal, lifting it up. Light from one of the street lamps outside reflected off the face of the compass making the arrow pointing northwest shine brightly against the beige background. The small letters representing the directions north, east, south, and west were hand painted in black on each side of the face starkly contrasting against the light beige underneath. I flipped it over to read the inscription: to be passed on forever. The phrase was written in Latin and refers to the compass getting passed down from generation to generation.